Knowing when it's time to go
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Career guides try to distill jobs into basic components. 'Work hard and get ahead.' 'Be your own advocate.' That sort of thing.
But anyone who's been in an office for a while knows that human interaction undermines those components. The real trick -- and it takes a long time to learn this -- is realizing the work system isn't a system at all. It's an arbitrary and ever-changing rule set that often pushes reason to the sidelines.
That's a rough conclusion for 'system thinkers,' a category of worker Michael Lopp, author of 'Being Geek' and the blog Rands in Repose, puts himself in. Lopp is a geek.
But anyone who's been in an office for a while knows that human interaction undermines those components. The real trick -- and it takes a long time to learn this -- is realizing the work system isn't a system at all. It's an arbitrary and ever-changing rule set that often pushes reason to the sidelines.
That's a rough conclusion for 'system thinkers,' a category of worker Michael Lopp, author of 'Being Geek' and the blog Rands in Repose, puts himself in. Lopp is a geek.
He's a guy who likes order and predictable outcomes. And he understands that
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system thinkers can face unique pressures in the office.
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